I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Jimmy Eat World, but I find it impossible to identify them. They’re neither as schmoopy as their detractors would suggest, nor as challenging as their more ardent fans seem to allege. So what the hell are they?

Smiling Dogs, the debut album from Man’s Gin, the new project from Erik Wunder of Cobalt, is not black metal, but it is nonetheless pitch-black music—with roots in Appalachian and Irish folk, blues, German beer-hall songs, murder ballads. (And it’s catchy as hell.)